Chips Quinn would have celebrated his 55th birthday on July 20, 2010.

John C. Quinn thought his birthday would be an appropriate occasion to reprint a copy of the last memo Chips wrote to his staff while editor of the Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal — and to remind Chips Quinn Scholars everywhere that his spirit lives on in you.

“Each day we must publish a newspaper that makes us proud, but not so proud that we forget that it is not our newspaper, but our readers’.

“To accomplish that, we must:
• Be fresh.
• Be informative.
• Be inviting.
• Be accurate and fair.
• Be appetizing.
• Be clear.
• Be imaginative.
• Be unselfish.

“Care. Care. Care. Take it and show it.”